#chelseaspace

[nicolabenford]

New CHELSEA space exhibition - The sun went in, the fire went out: landscapes in film, performance and text - opens next Wednesday 27/1 PV on 26/1 🎉 #carlylereedy #chelseaspace (at Chelsea College of Arts)

[fanriot]

Lynda Morris: The Curator as Fan

"Because of her enthusiasm and sensitivity in working directly with artists and their materials, Lynda Morris has described herself as a 'fan', for others she is the 'artists' curator'."

http://www.chelseaspace.org/archive/lynda-pr.html

[helen-couchman]

Crossing Corners by Helen Couchman. Paper installation at Chelsea Space, London. 

[caitlinsmyth]

Tides of Trends - Don't blame the Hipster

I just read this great article on the Guardian online all about end of the ‘hipster’ trend. It talks about how the original concept of the hipster - a subculture of men and women that value independent thinking and counter culture - initially used in the 40s in reference youths that fought the norm - listened to jazz music, followed their own path wherever it took them. It now has become a general description of anyone who wants to look, think and behave in a certain way, key areas being for men; sporting a large beard, turned up jeans, tattoos etc and for women; stripes, oversize denim jackets AND jeans, thick rimmed glasses, hat perched on the back of ones head, big sweatshirts. It also touches on the now negative connotations of being  a certain type of hipster (the apparently fake one…) - trying too hard, going through the motions, living on mummy and daddy’s bank roll etc etc. 

It got me thinking back to the Lloyd Johnson exhibition I worked on at CHELSEA space - based all on the rocker clothing designs of Lloyd Johnson - a clear mod. The rockers and the mods both followed these trends to break away from the post war government and society they were brought up in.It was such a new concept that to actually commit to the movement in any way meant you could only go whole heartedly fourth into breaking cultural rules and you were making your own clothes and searching for elusive literature and music and events you needed for the ride.

This got me thinking, are we viewing these new trends and the people who follow them in the same way as older trends have been viewed - as forward thinking avant garde styles and people who are trying to view the world in a new radical way. When really maybe we should be viewing them differently… For me a lot of the newer trends I see, hipster, normcore etc etc have been born during the internet culture, where more and more information has been available to anyone who wants to find it - Google current fashion trends and you get 54,600,000 results. Specifying to hipster trends still results in 7,640,000 hits, that’s a pretty confusing place to try and find your voice.

We’re overloaded with magazines, social media and the internet which all depict what is the most cool and avant guarde ways to dress, think and be seen and we now have everything possible available to us at the drop of your hat. I think it’s this overload that has changed the way we find our styles. No longer are people trying to push the boundaries of their lifestyle and using a trend to define what they believe in and explore new ways of thinking. Instead these new trends provide a way for people to find a place and a community to define themselves by. 

Yes this seems less rock and roll and for a while I’ll admit I was saddened that my generation looked unlikely to make any leaps forward in culture. But instead we’ve hit this technological revolution and we’re all fighting to acclimatise and find a place within a world that is much smaller.  

So my new perspective on trends - hipsters or others. Is that this is my generation’s way of coping with a quickly changing world, finding a sense of community when we don’t talk to each other anymore and when someone on the other side of the world can be as close as your mates on the other side of a city. So we don the clothes, the accent, the interests and exist as a part of something until we know ourselves better in this overloaded world….

Don’t blame the hipster, they’re just trying to fit in…!

Here is the article that prompted this rather heavy Monday action.

[jealousyj]

Peter Blake: Four Decades / CHELSEA Futurespace

I went to the private view of a small new Peter Blake show last night, which opens today at Chelsea Futurespace near Chelsea Bridge. Some new, some old; a bit of a money spinner (how people feel they can justify a jump of more than a hundred pounds from unframed to framed I'll never know; in one print's case for nearly 17% of its actual value you can have some wood and glass over it - £1000/£1200).

Not to say it's not worth going to the seemingly makeshift 'Futurespace'. Even though I know a small bit about Blake, I was struck yesterday with the thought that his treatment of the human figure is so incredibly natural. One doesn't associate Pop Art with this, but at some points his treatment of simple human mannerisms is spot on. This is especially true in the case of Alice in the Through the Looking Glass series.

If you're in need of a 'bitesize injection of Blakepop' (as PR might sell it), or you're just wondering why Blake is so highly regarded, then it's worth popping by if you're in the area. In this small space they've managed to fit in a fair few examples of what Sir Peter Blake is all about. Clearly I am a fan, even though it pains me that Blake has an Homage to Damien Hirst series.

'and to show you I'm not proud, you may shake hands with me!', 1970

'But isn't it old!' Tweedledum cried, 1970

'Well This is Grand!' said Alice, 1970

'I Love You', 2004

'Found Art - Watercolours', 2005

'R is for Rainbow' 1991.

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the last print, but I'm going to file it under Controversial/Perfunctory.

I should also say that the prints in this exhibition were 'selected by the artist', which essentially means that this is in no way a retrospective whatsoever - not even a flirtation.